Navy's 'significant bet' on a $13B supercarrier dogged as an expensive boondoggle while threats loom

The newest and most expensive aircraft carrier ever built entered the U.S. Navy fleet Saturday, but almost three years behind schedule and billions of dollars over its estimated budget.

With Saturday's commissioning, the carrier will go back into testing and training, and isn't expected to be fully operational until 2020 at the earliest. The ship's catapult has yet to launch an actual aircraft at sea and the vessel has only had helicopters land on its deck.

Although it has yet to be put to the test, some already say the USS Gerald R. Ford is an example of the Navy's costly and risky bet on "immature" technology.